It makes me desperate to know the story of how this came about as the vision for a Bloodlines sequel. Right now, it feels like The Chinese Room had a good idea for a Vampire: The Masquerade game and Paradox—at a loss for what to do after the debacle of Hardsuit Labs’ original version of the game—got the studio to slap the name on it.
Yes, I am inclined to believe that is exactly what happened.
I would give anything to know what exactly was going on with Hardsuit Labs’ original version. Was it technically incompetent, too bland, too controversial, too niche? What exactly is the reason Paradox axed them?
The lukewarm reviews are actually sounding kind of promising. I’m good at letting go of nostalgia, it never pays off anyway. I have just been more interested in a decent World of Darkness RPG and that might have still been something that has come together despite all the development setbacks
Here’s hoping the game is good.
I tried the original, but it’s running on such an old and ancient version of the Source engine that I just couldn’t get into it. Would be neat if someone would port it to Source 2 and upscale the textures.
I genuinely think Paradox could make good money on a complete remaster of the game in a modern engine. Keep the story, world, and important mechanics identical, but make it with modern graphics and control.
I’m honestly surprised they didn’t do a remaster of some sort before Bloodlines 2 came out. Like how Microsoft released Age of Empires 1, 2, and 3 Definitive Edition 3, 2, and 1 year before the release of the brand-new Age of Empires 4. Really helped to drum up hype for the new game in the community. Firefly seems to be doing something similar with Stronghold.
Look, a remaster!
Graphics are similiar! Models are similiar! Slightly better lighting!
Minimal reqs: RTX 4080
I recall playing the original and got very far only for a bug that I couldn’t fix through a reload. I just gave up, never finished it. Was a somewhat interesting story though.
The original cannot be completed without Wesp5’s Unofficial Patch as far as I know. But with it it’s perfectly playable. It’s worth playing, despite being very janky and the last third of the game being a bit rushed it’s a cult classic for a reason.
I believe GOG releases the game with the Unofficial Patch as standard these days. Dunno about any other platforms which might sell the game.
GOG has the “Basic” (bug fixes only) version integrated into the game itself and also has the “Plus Patch” (cut content restoration and extras) as a separate one-click download.
The Steam version is unplayable I think, last I checked it doesn’t even run on modern machines.
